July 13, 2010

Bergen-Belsen bombed by the Luftwaffe?

From Wikipedia, I learned today that the Luftwaffe bombed a hospital at the Displaced Persons camp at Bergen Belsen on April 28, 1945, about a week before World War II was over. The Luftwaffe was the German Airforce, and they were bombing GERMANY a week before the war was over?

Here is the quote from Wikipedia:

In spite of massive efforts to help the survivors, about another 9,000 died in April, and by the end of June 1945 another 4,000 had died (after liberation a total of 13,994 people died). On the 13th day after liberation, the Luftwaffe bombed one of the hospitals in the DP camp, injuring and killing several patient and Red Cross workers. The total number of deaths at Bergen-Belsen from 1943 to June 1945 was about 50,000.[6]

This information from Wikipedia was repeated by paolosilv, one of the followers of this blog, who explained that the Luftwaffe bombed the DP camp hospital in order to kill all the Jews who had been liberated by the British on April 15, 1945.

In addition, the Luftwaffe on Apr 28 1945 bombed one of the Hospitals. Now why did they do this? It was because of Himmler’s order to kill all the prisoners.

Let me see if I’ve got this straight: Himmler voluntarily negotiated the surrender of the Bergen-Belsen camp to the British on April 15, 1945; then on April 28, 1945, Himmler ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb the hospital in the SS camp that had been turned over to the British on the 15th. Why didn’t Himmler just order the Luftwaffe, which was not under his command, to bomb the camp?

There are a couple of problems with this Holocaust story: the alleged bombing of the DP camp at Bergen-Belsen by the Luftwaffe is not mentioned by any source, other than Monika Godeke, who wrote this in the Bergen-Belsen guidebook which is sold at the Memorial Site. If the Luftwaffe had actually bombed the DP hospital, wouldn’t this be more widely known? Wouldn’t this have been mentioned in one of the war crimes trials after World War II ended?

When I first read this accusation in the Bergen-Belsen guidebook on my visit to the camp in 2001, I dismissed it as a false claim, which has not been corroborated by any other source. You can read all about Bergen-Belsen here and here. You can read a revisionist view of Bergen-Belsen here.

Thanks for the information. On April 28, 1945, there were very few German planes left, and if there were any, the Germans didn’t have any gas for them. It is interesting that the Luftwaffe somehow found some gas for a plane to strafe the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons camp which was in the former SS garrison. The Americans were very fond of strafing anything that moved, but they wouldn’t have been flying over the British zone, so my guess is that the DP camp was strafed by the British liars. Oh, excuse me, I meant to say British planes.